Snooker/Northern Ireland Trophy: Chinese prodigy Ding Junhui knocked out last Irish hope Ken Doherty at the Northern Ireland Trophy tonight.
Last season's UK champion triumphed 5-1 at the Waterfront Hall, silencing the Dubliner's supporters with breaks of 55, 70 and 69, as well as some excellent tactical play.
Doherty, who had beaten former UK champion Stephen Maguire and Thailand's James Wattana in reaching the quarter-finals, never got going despite the a vocal local crowd willing him to win.
The 1997 world champion had a high break of 68, but admitted "Lady Luck was not shining on me today".
"I love playing here and I've had great support all week, but tonight was a bit of a let down because I never got going.
"It never really happened for me unfortunately."
It was a different story for Ronnie O'Sullivan though who gave Dominic Dale a potting masterclass and rewrote the record books at the same time to book his place in this year's Northern Ireland Trophy final earlier today.
The Rocket raced to a 6-0 victory at the Waterfront Hall, leaving Welshman Dale shell-shocked with a stunning 53 minute victory.
The two-time world champion's win was the quickest ever best-of-11 frame match, beating Stephen Hendry's 6-0 semi-final win over Dave Harold at the 1993 International Open in Plymouth.
O'Sullivan was on fire with breaks of 65, 64, 84, 75, 63 and 67, helping him to establish a 4-0 lead at the interval in just 38 minutes.
The former world number one amassed a staggering 418 points in the first four frames, while world number 40 Dale rarely got his hand on the table and managed just 19 points.
It got even better following the interval with O'Sullivan adding further breaks of 106 and 63 to deny Dale a place in only his second ranking event final.
In total O'Sullivan amassed 608 points to Dale's 29.